I bought a wireless router, Linksys WRT54GL. I looked around, asked several salesmen and they all recommended this particular one. Once I saw a section called “Open Source” on the box, I was hooked :). It’s more expensive than other routers in the same category, but since people are recommending it …
There is a CD with a setup wizard in the box, and it looks very easy – connect the router to the network card of the computer, run the CD on the computer, follow the steps, provide the necessary information and there you are! I had a problem, however. After I inputted all fields and being at one of the last steps of the wizard, where the settings were to be saved on the device, an error occurred. Four-five times in a row. It was not possible to save the settings on the router! I guess the problem was with the firmware of my new gadget, because after I downloaded the latest version from here and upgraded the device (it is very easy, when you login through the web interface on 192.168.1.1, with no username and password “admin”), everything went Ok.
At this stage, a second problem occurred. I called my ISP to change the MAC address for my connection. They told me, that the MAC address of the router should be written on a sticker on the bottom of the device. Yes, it was there, but as they suggested, it was wrong :). You should know, that in some cases the MAC address on the sticker on the bottom of the router is for the local network, not for the internet connection. When I got the device to work it turned out to be different and the ISP support had to change it.
Overall I am happy with the router, because after I got it to work I had no other problems. And I don’t have to switch on my home computer to be able to connect to the internet on my laptop and on my smartphone anymore :).
Finally, if you happen to buy such router and you have problems with its setup, download and install the latest firmware, and keep in mind you might have to double check the MAC address :).